Thank you very much, Lieutenant Governor, for your kind words and for the job you have done in this outstanding first year as our Lieutenant Governor.

Governor Cuomo. Lieutenant Governor Duffy. Senator Skelos. Attorney General Schneiderman. Comptroller DiNapoli. Distinguished Guests. Citizens of the Great State of New York.

May I offer the very best wishes of the members of the New York State Assembly for a new year that is peaceful and prosperous.

Governor Cuomo, clearly you have emerged as the most effective state chief executive in our nation today.

With your leadership and by working together, we have taken significant strides toward improving government and bolstering our economy.

We instituted a property tax cap and revised our income tax schedule to make it more progressive.

We reached an historic agreement with the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturers which will retain or create nearly 7,000 jobs and we are investing $785 million in job-creating projects throughout the state thanks to our regional economic development councils headed by our Lieutenant Governor.

Governor, we in the Assembly look forward to working with you, with Senator Skelos and with our colleagues in the Senate to build upon the achievements of 2011, and to move our state further down the path to prosperity.

Ensuring that all New Yorkers are able to travel that path remains a prime concern of the Assembly Majority.

In recent years, the ladder to success has fallen into disrepair and our middle class is dwindling.

We must take it upon ourselves to rebuild this ladder, which generations of New Yorkers have tirelessly climbed to attain financial security.

To strengthen its first rung, I will ask the Assembly Majority to establish as a top priority – and to pass – legislation to raise the minimum wage, which has increased just ten cents in the last six years.

Frankly, it is absurd to expect anyone – let alone a working family – to afford the cost of living today and be able to invest in their future on a salary of $7.25 an hour; or $15,000 a year.

Increasing the minimum wage would benefit more than 1.2 million workers, or 14-percent of our workforce.

Right now, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and 15 other states have higher minimum wage rates than does New York State.

We should be leading the pack, not lagging behind it.

The second rung of the ladder to economic security is making sure that low-income workers can keep more of their hard-earned paychecks.

To that end, the Assembly Majority will act to provide tax relief for the working poor.

Under our plan, working families who earn less than $30,000 annually will see their income taxes cut. Working families who earn less that $25,000 will pay no taxes at all.

As with the payroll tax recently enacted by Congress, these tax cuts will not only help working families improve their quality of living, they will boost our economy by putting money into circulation and having it spent immediately.

Education, it is said, is the great equalizer and for this reason, the Assembly Majority has been a longtime champion of educational investment.

To strengthen the third rung of the ladder, we are proposing to increase the state’s support for our community colleges.

With high unemployment and widespread under employment, more and more of our citizens are looking to community colleges for a new path to a better life.

By law, this state is obligated to fund up to 40-percent of the operational budgets of our community colleges, but only once in four decades has the state fully met that obligation.

Now, when these learning centers are so important to our economy, to our companies and to our workers, we must increase our investment in them.

While we cannot erase years of middle-class erosion in one legislative session, we can and we will work in partnership with Governor Cuomo and with our colleagues in the Senate to strengthen the ladder so that future generations will be able to climb out of poverty and into financial security.

May it be our ongoing New Year’s resolution to remain united in our commitment to keeping alive America’s promise of a better life for every hardworking family, and a brighter future for each and every child.

Thank you.

And Skelos

I want to thank Governor Cuomo for the invitation to speak to you today.

Governor – you have been a leader, an innovator, and a friend. Thank you
for that.

It is a pleasure to again share this stage with:
– Lieutenant Governor Duffy,
– Speaker Silver,
– Comptroller DiNapoli, and
– Attorney General Schneiderman.

And it’s nice to see Chief Judge Lippman and the members of the Court of
Appeals.

Happy New Year to you and to all my colleagues and to members of the public
from across the state.

And a special thank you to Archbishop Demetrios and Rabbi Romm for being
with us today.

A year ago, I stood on this stage and talked about our shared goal of
getting New York’s fiscal house in order and restoring the people’s faith
in those elected to serve them.

It’s easier to govern when times are good, revenues are high and jobs are
plentiful, but that was not the reality we faced then, or now.

But we have reached across the divides of partisanship to meet daunting
challenges without delays and without excuses.

Together we threw away the playbook for Albany gridlock and dysfunction.
When it mattered most, we made state government function and produced the
best results for New Yorkers.

We:
> Reduced state spending and cut the size of government,
> and closed a $10 billion budget deficit without raising taxes and fees.

We:
> Repealed the MTA payroll tax for tens of thousands of businesses and for
all schools,
> Provided millions of dollars in relief for flood damaged areas of the
state,
> Approved major economic expansions at our State University centers, and
> Sowed the seeds for new job creation projects across the state.
Many of these accomplishments were long-held Senate Republican priorities,
passed and signed into law because we finally had a partner in Governor
Cuomo.

Now we have to capitalize on our positive momentum and set the stage for
the creation of new private sector jobs and a prosperous decade.

It starts with early passage of another fiscally responsible state budget.

We still face a budget deficit of more than $3 billion that we should once
again close through responsible spending cuts and not by raising taxes and
fees.
We must continue to reduce taxes and put more money in the pockets of
taxpayers.

We have to turn ideas into action when it comes to mandate relief,
including pension reform, to protect property taxpayers and ensure that
local governments and school districts stay under the tax cap.

And, most important, we have to encourage the creation of more private
sector jobs because job growth is the long term solution to our budget
problems.

We must create a more business-friendly state so small businesses can
flourish – a state that can compete with every other state and nation to
attract dynamic, large-scale job creation projects.

When a business is deciding whether it will operate in Amherst or DeWitt;
Poughkeepsie or Saratoga; or Rockville Centre – the deciding factor is
often how business-friendly the state is.

State government can help encourage job creators by cutting business taxes,
reducing red tape and making smart capital investments.

But ultimately, the solutions that will strengthen our economy are found in
our communities, our neighborhoods, in corner offices and at our kitchen
tables.

That’s where the real job creators are making decisions — maybe it’s a
decision to expand and create a thousand new jobs that will impact an
entire region– or – maybe it’s a decision to hire one new employee and
improve the quality of life for one family.
They are both very important decisions – we want to make sure the answer to
both is ‘yes.’

If we achieve our goal to create more jobs and a build a stronger economy,
we will be the proud engineers of a more prosperous New York, now and for
generations to come.

Governor Cuomo and Speaker Silver – despite the progress we have made, New
York still faces a tough road to prosperity – but we won’t be intimidated
by that challenge, we will be inspired by it.

In just one year we have seen how far we have come — working together we
will determine how far we will go.

Let’s endeavor to make this session even more productive than the last one.